Hillary and Obama (First Quarter) '08

1.31.2008 Telecom Group Key Player in Immunity Battle

The Third Way board is made up of wealthy hedge fund managers, major corporate law firm executives, corporate executives and Washington, DC, insiders. An investigation by Truthout revealed deep connections between some board members and telecommunications companies.
Matt Renner:Truthout.com via NewsTrust.net

Mr. Rockefeller’s office said Monday that the sharp increases in contributions from the telecommunications executives had no influence on his support for the immunity provision....Mr. Rockefeller received little in the way of contributions from AT&T or Verizon executives before this year, reporting $4,050 from 2002 through 2006. From last March to June, he collected a total of $42,850 from executives at the two companies. The increase was first reported by the online journal Wired, using data compiled by the Web site OpenSecrets.org.
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“The idea that John Rockefeller could be bought is kind of ridiculous,” said Matt Bennett, vice president for Third Way, a moderate Democratic policy group that has supported immunity for the phone carriers.

ERIC LICHTBLAU and SCOTT SHANE:NYT Via Third Way

Content filtering plans have also begun to emerge in North America. Large US ISPs such as AT&T have inexplicably promised to develop new content filters on their networks and are discussing an implementation plan with content owners. Michael Geist:BBC

1.24.2008 Crashing the Subprime Party - How the feds stopped the states from averting the lending mess.

As the federal government scurries to prevent the subprime mortgage crisis from sending the economy into a deep recession, many of us are asking why it waited so long to intervene. As it turns out, the government wasn't exactly sitting on its hands. Instead, for reasons that now appear hopelessly shortsighted, an obscure federal agency torpedoed legislation from a handful of states that would have made institutional investors far charier of buying mortgage loans that were likely to go belly-up. If the legislation had been permitted to go into effect, the crisis we now face would probably look a lot less grim. The right question, then, is not why the feds did so little. It's why they did so much. Nicholas Bagley: Slate via NewsTrust.net

Aside from business tax breaks — which are an unhappy story for another column — the plan gives each worker making less than $75,000 a $300 check, plus additional amounts to people who make enough to pay substantial sums in income tax. This ensures that the bulk of the money would go to people who are doing O.K. financially — which misses the whole point.

The goal of a stimulus plan should be to support overall spending, so as to avert or limit the depth of a recession. If the money the government lays out doesn’t get spent — if it just gets added to people’s bank accounts or used to pay off debts — the plan will have failed. (Here)

1.25.2008 " Hamas challenges Egypt's bid to close Gaza border" See also: Gaza Into Egypt

1.25.2008Late Nite FDL: Three Days to Win on FISA

Forget any bad feelings you may have towards Harry Reid. We've got three days to make sure he beats Mitch McConnell in an important showdown on FISA on Monday.

McConnell has called for a cloture vote on the SSCI Bill (the one that gives the telecoms--and therefore Dick Cheney--immunity). The vote is scheduled for 4:30 PM on Monday, just hours before the State of the Union. If the Republicans win the cloture vote, then the SSCI bill will almost certainly become law--and you will have fewer protections against improper government surveillance. emptywheel

And WaPo:

The issue has spilled over into the Democratic presidential race: Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) have said that they oppose legal immunity for the telecoms, but neither was present for yesterday's vote. In a series of e-mails to supporters yesterday, the liberal group MoveOn.org urged Clinton and Obama to help lead a filibuster to block the immunity legislation in the Senate.
Dan Eggen and Paul Kane

Late last year, Democrats urged the White House to withdraw Mr. Bradbury’s name once and for all and find a new candidate for the post after it was disclosed in news reports in October that he was the author of classified memorandums that gave approval to harsh interrogation techniques, including head slapping, exposure to cold and simulated drowning, even when used in combination.
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The department and the White House have insisted that there are no contradictions between Mr. Bradbury’s legal opinions, which are still secret, and laws and rules governing interrogation techniques. A department spokesman, Peter A. Carr, said Wednesday that the department remained eager to see Mr. Bradbury confirmed.

PHILIP SHENON and ERIC LICHTBLAU:NYT

1.20.2008 Failure to Launch - Inside the Bush administration's dream of resurrecting the nuclear weapons complex—and the old-school Republican congressman who stood in its way

... Which is why this respected conservative has emerged, to his own surprise, as one of the toughest opponents of the Bush administration's extraordinarily ambitious attempts to expand the nation's nuclear weapons complex. The irony is that Hobson strongly believes the United States should have a state-of-the-art nuclear capability and a credible nuclear deterrent; he's even crafted a program that he believes would ensure this. Yet on nuclear policy, he says, President Bush has committed a cardinal legislative sin: putting forth grand ideas without a business plan or even a coherent notion of their impact on national security. James Sterngold:Mother Jones

The plan is to put public money into private pockets.

In its January edition, Nature Biotechnology argues that the FDA should be more forthcoming about the reasoning behind its approvable letter last May for Provenge.

Ever since the approvable letter, which came after a fairly positive advisory panel hearing, the FDA has been under fire -- and faced lawsuits -- from patient advocates, investors, and others for not approving the drug.

Its not that the FDA's naysayers think the drug doesn't work. They just want more evidence of its effectiveness before they give their full approval. But since the hoopla surrounding the FDA's decision is coupled with conflict-of-interest allegations aimed at two advisory panel members, members of Congress have now decided to get involved and have called for an investigation into the FDA's decision.
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And wouldn't it be fascinating to know what the FDA's problem is with Novartis' (NYSE: NVS) diabetes-treating drug, Galvus? As things stand, we can only hope that no issues that concern Galvus could affect the whole class of DPP-IV inhibitors. I'm sure that doctors, patients, and other developers of DPP-IV inhibitors, such as Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), would benefit from knowing exactly what's going on. Brian Lawler:Motley Fool

Speaking to the press aboard Air Force One on Monday, while en route to Saudi Arabia, National Security Advisor Steve Hadley said, "These are not new announcements. This is the implementation of the announcement that was made months ago. Pretty big package, a lot of pieces. As these pieces get readied and worked out between the two parties, they can then get notified on the Hill."
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But Arkin noted one danger from the deal:

What comes with the deal, though, is far more subtle trouble: Saudi Arabia has demonstrated over decades that it has no interest in building up its own high-tech arms capabilities. American contractors will train, maintain and even operate the new Saudi equipment. American military personnel will follow. We will buy nothing in terms of security, and we will just put our own people in danger. But most important, we will once again renew the cycle of American penetration into the heart of Islam, one of Osama bin Laden's original and most compelling rallying points. That's why the Saudi deal is so dangerous.

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One might view this as the triumph of hope over reality; given that the US has had little success in the past in using arms sales to buy leverage in the region. And unlike some past sales, no conditions are attached. In fact, when Rice visited the Middle East last July, she insisted that the Bush administration had not imposed demands on its allies in exchange for the arms and aid deals. "This isn't an issue of quid pro quo," Rice told reporters. "We are working with these states to fight back extremism." David Isenberg

1-12-08: Red Flags over New Hampshire

Clinton Optical scan 91,717 52.95%
Obama Optical scan 81,495 47.05%

Clinton Hand-counted 20,889 47.05%
Obama Hand-counted 23,509 52.95%

- Two hand count towns reported "zero" votes for candidate Ron Paul to the media, even though they did have votes for him. The town of Sutton reported zero, but had 31 votes; the town of Greenville reported zero, but had 25 votes. The two towns had misreported results affecting exactly the same candidate in exactly the same way. Black Box Voting

"The president's action is an attack on the rule of law," said Joel Reynolds, director of the Marine Mammal Protection Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "By exempting the Navy from basic safeguards under both federal and state law, the president is flouting the will of Congress, the decision of the California Coastal Commission and a ruling by the federal court." PAULINE JELINEK:HuffPo

"The White House declaration raises more questions than it answers, specifically the likelihood that for a very significant period of time _ March 2003 to October 2003 _ the White House recycled its backup tapes," said Weismann.

"As a result there may be no way to recover the missing e-mails from a period in which the U.S. decided to go to war with Iraq, White House officials leaked the identity of Valerie Plame and the Justice Department started a criminal investigation of the White House," the lawyer said

The sworn statement by Payton did not say how early in the Bush administration the recycling of backup computer tapes began. The statement does not say why the White House stopped recycling backup tapes in October 2003.

This race, on both sides, is so cautious. Most of that probably has to do with not knowing who the frontrunner on the GOP side is going to turn out to be - no one wants to stake out the wrong territory. Think about how complicated a single issue, like immigration, gets depending on what Republican wins the nomination. Jason Linkins:HuffPolitics via newstrust.net

In the waning days of an administration marked by a penchant for confidentiality, open government groups and Congress have redoubled efforts to ensure that the written record of the Bush presidency is not lost to history. They say recent developments show growing irritation with a president who has used national security concerns to draw a veil over the workings of the executive branch and to hoard power for the White House.
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This year, Congress took aim at a years-old logjam created by delays in responding to public records requests. The White House opposed the Open Government Act of 2007 and enlisted allies in Congress to block it. But in December, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) lifted his hold on the bill. On New Year's Eve at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., Bush signed it.

The law penalizes agencies that take months or years to meet FOIA requests by denying them the right to charge research or copy fees for documents released after the 20-day deadline, among other provisions.

In 2006, Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) drafted a bipartisan bill requiring the White House budget office to put government contract information online. The bill eventually passed, and Bush signed it. The site, USASpending.gov, went online last month. WaPo

McConnell said the legal test for torture should be "pretty simple."
"Is it excruciatingly painful to the point of forcing someone to say something because of the pain?" he said. Pamela Hess:Huffington Post

1.12.2008 "CA Appeals Court Invalidates Warrantless Entry and Arrest for Pot Smoking"

1.7.2008 Strait of Hormuz? Is that somewhere near the Gulf of Tonkin?

Ships? Boats? whatever floats

VOA News
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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has delivered a stern warning to Iran, urging Tehran to cease what she calls "provocations," after Iranian ships confronted the American Navy in the Persian Gulf.
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The small Iranian speedboats involved in Sunday's incident are usually operated by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is outside the regular military chain of command and often takes a more confrontational approach toward the United States.

1.8.2008 Robert J. Spitzer, LA Times: "Bush brushed aside the Constitution to veto a defense spending bill."

1.7.2008 "US judge chastises Dept. of Justice -- Blasts handling of prosecutor's misconduct" via emptywheel

1.7.2008

George W. Bush didn't invent the world he inhabits. He, his top officials, and all their lawyers who wrote those bizarre "torture memos" that will be hallmarks of his era chose from existing strains of thought, from urges and tendencies already in American culture. But their record on this has, nonetheless, been remarkable. In just about every case, they chose to bring out the worst in us; in just about every case, they took us on as direct a journey as possible to the dark side.

1.7.2008 James Moore explains the Obama Tsunami.

1.07.2008 And to sum up the Bush years: Resume of George W. Bush (Here) (Here) (Here) and for those of you who think it couldn't be that bad (Here)

1.07.2008 Laptops at the border: "If Your Hard Drive Could Testify ..." Adam Liptak: NYT

There are all sorts of lessons in these cases. One is that the border seems be a privacy-free zone. A second is that encryption programs work. A third is that you should keep your password to yourself. And the most important, as my wife keeps telling me, is that you should leave your laptop at home.

1.6.2008 "Can You Count on Voting Machines?" No. NYT

1.6.2008 "Bush Reappoints Mine Safety Chief Who Bungled Crandall Canyon Disaster" Think Progress

1.6.2008 The essential George Will: "The Problem with Populists"

1.4.2008 emptywheel: "Steven Aftergood Takes on Pixie Dust"

Secrecy News from the Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy

And by yielding to the OVP's extreme view, the Justice Department has introduced new deformities in the classification system. So, for example, the classification activities of the Vice President's National Security Advisor are now said to be exempt from ISOO oversight even though the classification activities of the President's National Security Advisor must be reported to ISOO.

This incoherent new policy is attributable to professional misconduct by Justice Department attorneys, the FAS complaint argues, because they were obligated to respond to the ISOO request and refused to do so. Steven Aftergood

1.3.2008 "Rudy Floats Dick Cheney For Vice President Again"

1.3.2008 Democrats say Bush can’t pocket veto defense bill

“Congress vigorously rejects any claim that the president has the authority to pocket-veto this legislation, and will treat any bill returned to the Congress as open to an override vote,” said Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for Pelosi. He said the Speaker is keeping all legislative options on the table. Walter Alarkon:The Hill